Natural Living is Not Just About Food

Natural Living is Not Just About Food
By Wendy Streater

Maybe you already have a healthy diet and you exercise regularly, watch your weight and look after your health. Do you also watch what you put onto your skin? Are you aware that your skin absorbs many chemicals just as if they had been swallowed? Some are worse because being absorbed through your skin they go straight into your body without having been previously filtered through your liver.

Have you ever seen someone with heart problems putting a tablet under their tongue? This is done because the drug is absorbed through the lining of their mouth faster than it would be absorbed if it were swallowed. How much lipstick do you apply? Where do you think it goes? The average woman is supposed to have swallowed seven pounds of lipstick over her lifetime. Red lipstick contains lead. Some cosmetic companies were forced to remove their red lipsticks from sale because the quantities of lead were above the recommended safe dose. Lead is a heavy metal, which our bodies can't dispose of readily. It builds up in our system, along with the lead from the environment until our systems can no longer cope and we begin to suffer the effects of lead poisoning. One of the first is headaches.

Have you heard of nicotine patches? They are applied to the skin of people wishing to give up smoking. They release a steady dose of nicotine into the bloodstream of the quitter to help them cope with the addiction. The drug is absorbed through the skin. How many substances are you absorbing through your skin? Do you use deodorant, moisturiser, perfume or soap? Of course you do. Do you know how many carcinogens, petrochemicals or mutagens are in your personal care products? My guess is, probably not.

Maybe you believe that if it were dangerous the government wouldn't allow it to be sold. What about cigarettes? They are a proven contributor to many types of cancer. They are freely available for sale. The government even makes a fortune in taxes from the sale of this deadly substance.

The government does not have the resources to test the effect of all the new chemicals being developed daily for the cosmetic industry. They can't do long term studies on products that didn't even exist until recently. They certainly don't have the resources to test even combination of these chemicals. They haven't even begun to test the effects of chemicals being absorbed through our skin. The scary thing is the list of dangerous substances that has come from the tests they have done. Many of the products we regularly put onto our skin cause cancers, birth defects, mood disturbances and allergies.

I choose not to risk my health and the health of my family on products that have not been fully tested. I choose to use natural products. After all, why take the risk when the natural alternative is equally effective, readily available and usually cheaper to buy.

Wendy Streater has been interested in natural products for over twenty years. After discovering some disturbing facts about the ingredients in regular household products, Wendy has set up a site http://www.naturallythebest.info devoted to informing everyone about the natural, affordable alternatives available.

There is a lot of things most people take for granted e.g., the government controls the amount of dangerous chemicals in toiletries and make-up. This is not possible, given the amount of new chemicals and combination of chemicals developed every year. We need to take a proactive approach and look out for ourselves. http://www.naturallythebest.info

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